At 11:55 11/05/2001 +0000, Martin Hill wrote:
>This just isn't true!!  Although it is true that all people who eat will do,
>therefore there is a correlation between the two, a correlation DOES NOT
>prove cause and effect.

I have a ("scientific" :) suggestion to clarify once and for all whether
speed is a crucial factor in traffic injuries:

- Take a common car.
- Equip it with an exact speed control (easy to do with a PIC, as long as
it doesn't have to work in general traffic situations), resolution and
precision of 1 km/h should be enough. It should also stop in case of a
collision -- also not rocket science, can be done by the same PIC.
- Get a driver for it. Alternatively you could use the line follower Tony
Nixon is developing -- I'm sure he appreciates test options.
- Place yourself in the trajectory of the car (on the line in the case of
using the line follower).
- Start the car, running at 1 km/h, towards you. This could be done by a
PIC controlled remote.
- Repeat this, with increasing speed, until you feel unconfortable with the
collisions. For storing the results, I (OT!) suggest a notebook. (Could
also be done with a PIC, though...)

At this point you may consider increasing or not. If speed is not a factor
in all this, increasing the speed should not affect your feeling
(un)comfortable with the collisions. If it seems that increasing the speed
indeed does make it increasingly uncomfortable, we still have not a clear
cause-effect relationship, not even a statistical relationship (after all,
it was only one sample out of the human race), but it may be a strong
enough indication to warrant further research whether the speed of moving
cars is actually involved in determining the amount of damage at collision,
or whether the color of the paint or the medium length of the driver's
hairs are the more determining factors.

Somebody really convinced could go on and continue, passing the "comfort
zone" and stepping into the "hospital zone." I just fear that the time it
will take between test runs may get increasingly longer with each speed
step, and maybe that's the reason why we until today don't have conclusive,
and statistically reasonably certain, data available for answering this
question beyond any doubt.

ge

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